Donald Trump on Crime

Keep death penalty; don't forget the victims

President Trump blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom for halting executions for the state's 737 death row inmates. "Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and families of the
always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!" Trump tweeted.

The tweet comes as Newsom signs an executive order that would halt all executions at San Quentin State Prison, closing a new execution chamber. Newsom's order will go against
the wishes of California voters, who in 2016 backed a measure to speed up executions.

Meanwhile, Trump has been a supporter of the death penalty. In October, Trump called for the death penalty for those who kill police officers. "Reducing crime
begins with respecting law enforcement," Trump said. "We believe that criminals who kill our police officers should immediately, with trial, but rapidly as possible, not 15 years later, 20 years later--get the death penalty."

First Step Act: criminal justice reform & fairer sentencing

My Administration worked closely with members of both parties to sign the First Step Act into law. This legislation reformed sentencing laws that have wrongly and disproportionately harmed the African-American community.
The First Step Act gives non-violent offenders the chance to re-enter society as productive, law-abiding citizens. Now, States across the country are following our lead. America is a Nation that believes in redemption.

Source: 2019 State of the Union address to United States Congress
, Feb 5, 2019

Unfair to serve a life sentence for a nonviolent drug crime

In 1997, Alice was sentenced to life in prison as a first-time non-violent drug offender. Over the next two decades, she became a prison minister, inspiring others to choose a better path. Alice's story underscores the disparities and unfairness
that can exist in criminal sentencing--and the need to remedy this injustice. She served almost 22 years and had expected to be in prison for the rest of her life. In June, I commuted Alice's sentence.

Source: 2019 State of the Union address to United States Congress
, Feb 5, 2019

Stop-and-frisk works in high-crime cities like Chicago

President Trump touted the "stop and frisk" policy in a speech to the International Association of Chief of Police Annual Convention, saying it's a policy that works and was meant for places like Chicago.

The president, who regularly brings up Chicago
when talking about crime, said that city should strongly consider the controversial "stop and frisk" policy used when his lawyer Rudy Giuliani was mayor of NYC.

"I have directed the attorney general's office to immediately go to the great city of
Chicago to help straighten out the terrible shooting wave. I'm going to straighten it out and straighten it out fast," Mr. Trump said. "There's no reason for what's going on there. I've told them to work with local authorities to try to change the
terrible deal the city of Chicago entered into with ACLU, which ties law enforcement's hands and to strongly consider stop and frisk. It works and it was meant for problems like Chicago. Got to be properly applied, but stop and frisk works."

Unify behind law enforcement; support the victims of crime

The murder rate in 2015 experienced its largest single-year increase in nearly half a century. In Chicago, more than 4,000 people were shot last year alone--and the murder rate so far this year has been even higher. This is not acceptable in our society.

Every American child should be able to grow up in a safe community, to attend a great school, and to have access to a high-paying job.But to create this future, we must work with--not against--the men and women of law enforcement.
We must build bridges of cooperation and trust--not drive the wedge of disunity and division.

Police and sheriffs are members of our community. They are friends and neighbors, they are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters--and they
leave behind loved ones every day who worry whether or not they'll come home safe and sound. We must support the incredible men and women of law enforcement. And we must support the victims of crime.

The order calls on the Justice Department
to "enhance the protection and safety" of law enforcement by increasing penalties for crimes committed against officers. The order recommends changes in federal grant funding to law enforcement programs if they do not protect officers.

The order outlines the administration's approach to cutting down on organized crime--including gangs, cartels and racketeering organizations--by
enhancing cooperation with foreign governments and the ways in which federal agencies share data. It identifies human trafficking, drug smuggling, financial crimes, cyber-crime and corruption as "a threat to public safety and national security."

Crime and gangs and drugs have created American carnage

Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists:
Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of
knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. We are one nation--and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams; and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny.

FactCheck: Stop-&-frisk unconstitutional but NYPD disagrees

When the moderator commented that "stop and frisk was ruled unconstitutional in New York," Trump responded, "No, you're wrong. It went before a judge, who was a very against-police judge. It was taken away from her." Who's right?

The important
distinction here is that stop and frisk as a tactic is constitutional. The way it was applied in New York City, and as it was challenged in the lawsuit that Trump was referring to, was found unconstitutional. Blacks and Hispanics who were stopped by
New York police sued the city, arguing that they were targeted for stops in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which argued the case on behalf of the plaintiffs,
confirmed that the practice was found unconstitutional in the 2013 case. But NYPD rejected the claim that stop and frisk is unconstitutional, saying Scheindlin ordered remedies to ensure the agency "applies the lawful policing tool constitutionally."

Stop-and-frisk worked very well in NYC

Q: What should be done about crime?

TRUMP: Stop and frisk worked very well in New York. It brought the crime rate way down. You take the gun away from criminals that shouldn't be having it. We have gangs roaming the street. And in many cases, they're
illegal immigrants. And they have guns. And they shoot people. And we have to be very vigilant. Right now, our police, in many cases, are afraid to do anything. We have to protect our inner cities, because African-American communities are being
decimated by crime.

Q: Stop-and-frisk was ruled unconstitutional in New York, because it largely singled out black and Hispanic young men.

TRUMP: No, you're wrong. Our new mayor refused to go forward with the case. They would have won on appeal.
There are many places where it's allowed.

Q: The argument is that it's a form of racial profiling.

TRUMP: No, the argument is that we have to take the guns away from bad people that shouldn't have them. You have to have stop-and-frisk.

Without law and order, we don't have a country

Q: How do you heal the racial divide?

A: We need law and order. If we don't have it, we're not going to have a country. I just got today the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police. We have endorsements from almost every police group, a large
percentage of them in the US. We have a situation where we have our inner cities, African- Americans, Hispanics are living in he'll because it's so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.

Considers stop-and-frisk useful and tremendous beyond belief

Q: Do you believe that police are implicitly biased against black people? A: When it comes to stop-and-frisk, you're talking about takes guns away. Well, I'm talking about taking guns away from gangs and people that use them. And I really don't think
you disagree with me on this, if you want to know the truth. I think maybe there's a political reason why [Clinton] can't say it, but I really don't believe--in New York City, stop-and-frisk, we had 2,200 murders, and stop-and-frisk brought it down to
500 murders. Five hundred murders is a lot of murders. It's hard to believe, 500 is like supposed to be good? But we went from 2,200 to 500. And it was continued on by Mayor Bloomberg. And it was terminated by current mayor.
But stop-and- frisk had a tremendous impact on the safety of New York City. Tremendous beyond belief. So when you say it has no impact, it really did. It had a very, very big impact.

Racial disparities in law enforcement? Maybe or maybe not

At the Post, Trump's tone remained even and his sentences grew longer and more complex then they'd been in debates or TV appearances. But he would no be pushed.
Six times, his questioners tried to get him to talk about whether police treat blacks more harshly then whites.

"You know, I feel very strongly about law enforcement," Trump replied. "Law enforcement, it's got to play a big role."

Asked again if he believed there were racial disparities in law enforcement,
Trump replied, "I've read where there are and I've read where there aren't. I mean, I've read both. And, you know, I have no opinion on that."

Settling Central Park jogger case was "a disgrace"

Two weeks after the "Central Park jogger case," millions of New Yorkers reading the city's four major newspapers were greeted with a full-page ad paid for by Trump. "Bring back the death penalty," he wrote. Trump wrote in the ad "They should be forced
to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes." Many blacks saw in Trump's ads not just opportunism, but also racism.

The female jogger would survive the brutal beating but the young men were convicted and served 6 to 13
years in prison. But years later, a career criminal confessed to the rape, providing a DNA match. The convictions were overturned, and the city paid $41 million to settle a wrongful imprisonment suit that the men had filed. Trump called the
settlement "a disgrace," refused to apologize, and said, "These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels." He said he wouldn't have given them "a dime" and insisted "they owe the taxpayers an apology for taking money out of their pockets."

Police can't act due to disrespect; but weed out bad ones

Q: The FBI director said there's a chill wind blowing through law enforcement because of increased scrutiny. How do you bridge the divide?

TRUMP: The police are absolutely mistreated and misunderstood, and if there is an incident--whether it's an
incident done purposely, which is a horror, and you should really take very strong action--or if it is a mistake, it's on your newscasts, and it never ends. The police in this country have done an unbelievable job of keeping law and order, and they're
afraid for their jobs, they're afraid of the mistreatment they get, and I'm telling you that not only, me speaking, minorities all over the country, they respect the police of this country and we have to give them more respect. They can't act. They're
afraid for losing their pension, their job. They don't know what to do. They want to do their job. And you're going to have abuse and you're going to have problems, and you've got to solve the problems and you have to weed out the problems.

The police are the most mistreated people in America

I want security for this country. I want to find out why those two horrible young people in California when they shot the 14 people. Many people saw pipe bombs and all sorts of things all over their apartment. Why weren't they vigilant? Why didn't they
call the police? And by the way, the police are the most mistreated people in this country. I will tell you that. The most mistreated people. We need vigilance. There's something going on and it's bad. And I'm saying we have to get to the bottom of it.

Source: Fox Business 2016 Republican 2-tier debate
, Jan 14, 2016

1989 full-page newspaper ads: "Bring Back the Death Penalty"

In April 1989, Trump saw an opportunity to speak his mind when a young white woman was raped and beaten while out for a jog in Central Park. As media reports shocked the city and the victim struggled for survival, police mounted an intense investigation
that ended with the apprehension of five black youths between the ages of 14 and 16. The five implicated themselves under interrogation, but would later recant, saying they had been pressured into making false statements.
Donald Trump bought full-page advertisements in the city's four big daily papers to proclaim BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!

Although he avoided naming the accused in the jogger case,
Trump's reference to "roving bands of wild criminals" left no doubt about why he had paid for the ads. Newspaper accounts had described "wolf pack" gangs marauding in the park.

Black lives matter, but we need strong police presence

Q: Do you see a crisis in the US of white police officers shooting unarmed blacks?

TRUMP: It's a massive crisis. It's a double crisis. I look at these things, I see them on television. And some horrible mistakes are made. But at the same time, we have
to give power back to the police because crime is rampant. I believe very strongly that we need police.

Cities need strong police protection. But officers' jobs are being taken away from them. And there's no question about it, there is turmoil in our
country on both sides.

Q: Do you understand why African Americans don't trust the police right now?

TRUMP: Well, I can certainly see it when I see what's going on. But at the same time, we have to give power back to the police because we have to have
law and order. And you're always going to have mistakes made. And you're always going to have bad apples. But you can't let that stop the fact that police have to regain control of this tremendous crime wave that's hitting the US.

Capital punishment isnít uncivilized; murderers living is

Civilized people donít put up with barbaric behavior. Would it have been civilized to put Hitler in prison? No-it would have been an affront to civilization. The same is true of criminals who prey on innocent people. They have declared war
on civilization. I donít care if the victim is a CEO or a floor sweeper. A life is a life, and if you criminally take an innocent life youíd better be prepared to forfeit your own. My only complaint is that lethal injection is too comfortable a way to go

Death penalty deters like violent TV leads kids astray

I canít believe that executing criminals doesnít have a deterrent effect. To point out the extreme, 100% of the people who are executed never commit another crime. And it seems self-evident (we canít put numbers to this) that a lot of people who
might otherwise commit a capital crime are convinced not to because they know thereís a chance they could die for it.

Young male murderers, we are constantly told, are led astray by violent music and violent movies. Fair enough. I believe that people
are affected by what they read, see, hear, and experience. Only a fool believes otherwise. So you canít say on one hand that a kid is affected by music and movies and then turn around and say he is absolutely not affected when he turns on
the evening news and sees that a criminal has gone to the chair for killing a child. Obviously capital punishment isnít going to deter everyone. But how can it not put the fear of death into many would-be killers?

Hold judges accountable; donít reduce sentences

Criminals are often returned to society because of forgiving judges. This has to stop. We need to hold judges more accountable, and the best way to make that happen is to elect them. Whey they hurt us, we need to make sure we can vote them out of the
job. The rest of us need to rethink prisons and punishment. The next time you hear someone saying there are too many people in prison, ask them how many thugs theyíre willing to relocate to their neighborhood. The answer: None.

For tough anti-crime policies; not criminalsí rights

We can have safe streets. But unless we stand up for tough anticrime policies, they will be replaced by policies that emphasize criminalsí rights over those of ordinary citizens.

Soft criminal sentences are based on the proposition that criminals are
the victims of society. A lot of people in high places really do believe that criminals are victims. The only victim of a violent crime is the person getting shot, stabbed, or raped. The perpetrator is never a victim. Heís nothing more than a predator.